Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Pitching Streamers: Logan Evans, Eduardo Rodriguez and More

It's a short day on the MLB schedule today, with only 14 teams in action, less than half the league. It could be worse: we only had four games last Thursday. We actually have a decent group of streamers considering the lack of options, though it's hardly a strong set of pitchers.

Let's look at five starting pitchers in action on Thursday who have good matchups and are widely available in fantasy leagues. Most stats are from MLB.com, as are the probable pitchers. The full streamer rankings are listed at the bottom.

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Bradley Blalock, Colorado Rockies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Eduardo Rodriguez, Arizona Diamondbacks @ Colorado Rockies

We'll start with two of the teams in the NL West who are out of the playoff race. The Rockies have been out of it since about the first week of the season; they're as bad as it gets. Arizona had higher hopes, but injuries and underperformance have wrecked their season, leading to them sell at the trade deadline. The offense has dropped to an average-at-best unit, so on a short day, we'll include them here.

Blalock has just 74 innings to his name, all accumulated over the past two seasons. It hasn't gone well: 95 hits, 60 runs (58 earned, 7.05 ERA), 34 walks, and 42 strikeouts. All those numbers are worse than average, and his K% might be the worst of it (12.2% versus league average around 22.5%). There's just not enough here to expect any success.

Rodriguez is around average with both walks and strikeouts, but he has been hit really hard since joining the Diamondbacks last year. In 103 innings this season, he has allowed 131 hits and 65 earned runs, making for a 5.68 ERA. Even worse, he has allowed eight unearned runs, which would push that number up to 6.38. That's not exactly fair, but it shows how vulnerable Rodriguez has been.

Blalock is a low-level streamer and Rodriguez a low-to-mid-level streamer. The former isn't good enough to trust in any situation, while the latter has a little better outlook and the better matchup but is still tough to trust. This game is at Coors Field, which makes the pitchers even less appealing, but even if it were in Arizona, Chase Field is one of the best hitter's parks in baseball. These teams don't make for great matchups when they face off, even with the Rockies as bad as they are.

Edward Cabrera, Miami Marlins @ Cleveland Guardians

Cleveland has pretty much played themselves off the streaming target list. You might not know it because they have now been here two days in a row, but that's a product of a lack of streamers and a few good young Miami pitchers more than anything. The Guardians have played well over the past month and have themselves in a great position in the wild card race.

Cabrera is owned in more than 50% of leagues and isn't really a streamer anymore. Again, the light schedule is making us bend the rules just a little bit in search of players. He also has enough availability to check on if you need innings. Cabrera is a very good strikeout pitcher and has brought his walk rate down to an average level. He has always been good limiting hits, so the much lower walks seem like the main culprit in his ERA (3.08) sitting more than a run lower than each of the past two seasons.

Cabrera is a mid-level streamer. His own work is very good, and while the matchup isn't great, Cleveland was worse earlier in the year, so there's a little upside.

Logan Evans, Seattle Mariners @ Baltimore Orioles

Evans is in his first season and has been thrown straight into the fire, as Seattle is in a dead heat with Houston for the top spot in the AL West. Both teams are likely to make the playoffs, but that's far from a guarantee with just four games separating the top wild card from the first team out of the playoffs. Evans has been OK but a little too prone to giving up hits and runs, having allowed 78 and 41, respectively, in 74 1/3 innings with an average walk rate and below-average strikeout rate. That's fine for the middle of June, but Evans will be relegated to the bullpen or off the roster in the playoffs.

The Orioles are another group who was on our target list most of the season but has played better offensively, making them more of a fringe team. Over the past month, Baltimore is closer to a top-10 offensive team than the bottom 10, though they settle in somewhere near the middle. On a day like today, that will have to do for our purposes.

Evans is a low-level streamer. He has been below average, and the matchup is just middling. Evans doesn't make up the difference with strikeouts, leaving him without a lot of paths toward big success.

Max Scherzer, Toronto Blue Jays vs. Chicago Cubs

The Cubs were one of the best teams in baseball during the first half of the season. Their season-long numbers still point to them as a top-10 offense, and as a Chicago fan (in every sport), I keep holding out hope that they can find that magic again at the most important time. They need to worry about making the playoffs first, though, as the Milwaukee Brewers are on the way to finishing with the league's best record. The Cubs' numbers over the past month are those of a clear bottom-10 offense, so they work as a one-day target here without a lot of other options.

Scherzer missed most of the season with injury, making only nine appearances so far. The team will be counting on him the rest of the way, though, as they have the best record in the American League and look primed for a playoff run. In his short season, Scherzer has been much better than average with both walks and strikeouts. Even on the wrong side of 40, Scherzer still looks like a useful pitcher.

Scherzer is a mid-level streamer. His work has been good in a small sample, and the Cubs seem ripe for the pickings given their current struggles.

Thursday's Streamer Rankings

1. Edward Cabrera, MIA
2. Max Scherzer, TOR
3. Eduardo Rodriguez, ARI
4. Logan Evans, SEA
5. Bradley Blalock, COL